"Indeed, Mr. Bennet," said she, "it is very hard to think that Charlotte Lucas should ever be mistress of this house, that I should be forced to make way for her, and live to see her take her place in it!"
"My dear, do not give way to such gloomy thoughts. Let us hope for better things. Let us flatter ourselves that I may be the survivor."
– Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 23. Mrs. Bennet is enraged that Charlotte Lucas has accepted Mr. Collins’s proposal of marriage, not for love but for security, and that Charlotte will one day displace the Bennets at Longbourn. Mr. Bennet tries to comfort his desolate wife by suggesting that he may survive Collins, who is meant to inherit the Bennets’ home when Mr.Bennet passes away.